Second International Summer School for Young Theater Artists in Russia

MOSCOW, May 21 (RIA Novosti, Natalia Kurova) The second International Summer School for Young Theater Artists, organised by the Theater Union of Russia, will take place at the Zvenigorod Art Centrein the Moscow outskirts, Theater Union Chairman Alexander Kalyagin said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The school, an ambitious educational project, is sponsored by the Theater Union, the Foreign and Culture ministries and the Moscow regional culture board. This year the school will attract 120 actors from 29 countries, including former Soviet republics.

Six productions of various genres will be staged at the school, which also offers elocution, movement, fencing, acrobatics, acting technique and other classes by leading professors from Moscow and St Petersburg drama schools.

"The Russian school of acting is known throughout the world, and we have every reason to be proud of it. Excellent performers inherit its glorious traditions, and I am glad that many of them have agreed to give master classes at our school," Kalyagin said.

Master classes will be led by foremost stage directors and performers-in particular, Pyotr Fomenko, Alexander Shirvindt, Oleg Tabakov, Leonid Kheifets and Alexander Kalyagin.

"Russia has never seen a stage educational project of such a large scale as this. It matters tremendously because nothing can substitute schooling-it takes more stage practice than library reading to see what acting is about. The fundamentals of acting are passed from professor to student," Kalyagin said.

"I am sure the school will be of great professional help to all its students. I hope it will become an annual event and start restoring broken links between generations, without which the theater will not make any progress," he added.